"Wandaba Style A Go!"
A 12-episode Comedy Anime about a group of singers shooting for the moon, literally. Michael Hanagata, manager of Mix Juice, an Idol group trying to make it big, strikes a deal with Teen Genius Susumu Tsukumo, who believes that man has never actually landed on the moon. He plans to change all that with his eco-friendly experiments, using Mix Juice as his pilots. Once on the moon, Mix Juice will give a concert, a publicity stunt that will rocket the girls to stardom! Or that's the plan, anyway. More often than not, Susumu's experiments (dubbed "Wandabas") end up being derailed by a minor detail, when the girls don't cause them to fail with their squabbling.
Things get messy in the second half, when Susumu's mother arrives on the scene and challenges her son to see which of them can get to the moon first.
Mix Juice consists of:
- Himawari Natsuwa: An Enka singer.
- Yuri Fuyude: A Rock singer.
- Ayame Akimo: A Folk singer.
- Sakura Haruno: A Nursery singer.
Tropes:
- Bad Future: When the girls travel into the future they find their futures less then ideal.
- Himawari goes back to working in construction to the point she becomes a Brawn Hilda.
- Yuri finds herself stuck working in fast food.
- Ayame becomes an office drone and apparently stops seeing her fairies.
- Sakura apparently tried to go back to singing but got into controversy and tries to make end meet by selling an unsuccessful tell all book to the public.
- Big Red Button: Susumu launches his experiments by pushing a large button labeled "Wandaba."
- Battle Cry: "Wandaba Style A Go!" ("Wandaba Style is go!" in the dub.)
- Cool Garage: Many deliberate shout-outs to Thunderbirds here. Susumu's lab is Tracy Island only even sillier.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Teen Genius Susumu adamantly believes that the 1969 moon landing was fake, and is thus trying to get a rocket there himself (using environmentally safe methods).
- Dreadful Musician: Ayame in her first appearance doesn't sing very well. This is the only time, though.
- Gonk: The "Mr. Fairies" that only Ayame can see are shown as small-ish, green, bald, musclebound men with wings.
- Guinea Pig Family: When the girls traveled to the past, they learned that Susumu's mother sent her husband on a rocket to space when Susumu was just a boy.
- Hairy Hammerspace: Michael Hanagata keeps his cellphone in his afro.
- Helium Speech: The girls (and Kiku) get this in episode three, and it doesn't wear off until halfway through the next episode.
- Heavy Voice: In episode six, when the girls gain weight, their voices get deeper, too.
- Informed Ability: The girls of Mix Juice each sing in a different genre, yet when they sing together, they sound like every other Idol Group out there.
- Insistent Terminology: Kiku 8 always classifies herself as a satellite rather then an robot or android. It's one of the few time she can get genuinely annoyed when the girls don't refer to her as such.
- Left the Background Music On: Susumu never tells the girls they are about to fly, but they figure it out when they hear a gong, music, and chanting. ("Wan-daba daba, wandabadabaaa...")
- Limited Wardrobe: The girls spend the first half of the series wearing sweatsuits, and are given new outfits when those finally wear out, which they wear for the rest of the series.
- Medium Awareness: In Episode 7, the title flies out of Michael's hair, and he says "No way! It was in there?"
- Moon-Landing Hoax: Susumu Tsukumo adamantly believes that the 1969 moon landing was fake (despite the fact that it's the near future by this point in the story so even if it was, doesn't mean humans haven't been there since then. But the story doesn't dwell on that), and is thus trying to get a rocket there himself (using environmentally safe methods).
- This likewise is the focus of the 7th episode when Susumu's mother apparently sends Micheal to the moon. But it's just a stage set and the "ship" he was on was a training plane that entered low gravity to simulate weightlessness. However it turns out it was a trap by Susumu's mother to lure him to the location and make it seem like he had staged it.
- Naked People Are Funny:
- When Mix Juice try to perform at their first gig, they end up getting into a fight over the microphone before they even start singing and up up pulling each other clothes off in the scuffle, rendering them completely naked. After which they sheepishly exit the stage.
- Kiku 8's introduction to Micheal and Mix Juice is this due to the fact she re-entered Earth on a ship that broke apart in re-entry. Leaving her exposed and her clothes burning off before crashing back into the ocean.
- Nerd Glasses: Susumu wore a pair at a party, while everyone else wore Groucho Marx Glasses.
- No Longer with Us: The girls observe Susumu's dad go on an ill-fated mission to the moon, and assume he didn't survive the trip. Turns out he just spent five years in space before coming back to earth.
- Numerical Theme Naming: Susumu's last name is spelled with the kanji for ninety-nine, hence why his labcoat has 99 on the back. Kiku is usually referred to as Kiku 8, since she is the eighth satellite Susumu created.
- Older Than They Look: Despite looking like a little kid, Sakura is actually the oldest of the girls.
- Phlebotinum Breakdown: Too much power turned a warp engine into a Time Machine.
- Scenery Censor: In the second episode. Kiku#8 is recharging her battery, but since she runs on solar power, and her "skin" is actual solar cells, she spends the scene naked, with Hanagata making efforts to keep the camera from seeing her naughty bits, mostly with his afro.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Susumu and his mom have nearly the same hairstyle, and they both wear glasses, though not the same type (Susumu's glasses were more similar to his mom's when he was younger, though.)
- Temporary Bulk Change: In episode six, the girls are shown to have gained a substantial amount of weight, due to not having anything to do while Susumu is in a slump. They lose most of it by the next scene.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Kiku 8 is usually quite cheerful even when trying to express other emotions and usually has to say it out loud then show it.Kiku 8: (Upon hearing the girls constantly argue during a launch attempt) Doctor, I am feeling a new emotion. Is this what it means to be pissed off?
- Theme Naming: All the girls are named after flowers.
- They Don't Make Them Like They Used To: Susumu does his calculations on a slide rule and uses ancient measurements (shoku and kan, for example).
- Wayback Trip: In episode 6, the girls accidentally travel back in time and interact with young Susumu, which has no effect on the present whatsoever.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Sakura, Himawari, and Yuri all have phobias that make traveling in space difficult: Yuri is afraid of heights, Sakura can't stand being in the dark, and Himawari worries about running out of air. These were only touched on in a couple of episodes, though.
